When I started blogging, I didn’t have a custom theme and relied on themes which were available on the Internet. I did have my favorite WordPress related blogs which listed out some really good themes and I usually downloaded themes from them.

Every once in a while I also preferred to use Google to search for "Free WordPress Themes". Now that I have my own custom built theme, I do not usually look for free themes anymore. However, many new WordPress users do use Google to find new themes for their blog.

The most common keyword for searching themes is "Free WordPress Themes". Now, this will land you thousands of results, but are they safe? Well, the WPMU blog did a comprehensive research on sites which showed up in Google search results and 9 out of the 10 top websites had Trojans or hidden code in the themes you downloaded from them.

The lone site which did not have any problem was the Official WordPress Themes Repository. The research done by the WPMU folks is a real eye-opener and I believe that many users wouldn’t even bother to look as closely as they did. To top it, many of the available themes are actually stolen and copyrighted from premium theme publishers.

I am experienced and advanced WordPress user, so I can figure these things out. However, millions of users out there are not as tech savvy as me and may be gullible to installing these so called "Free WordPress Themes".

The best thing we could do to stop this menace is to educate new users that it is best to download themes from the official WordPress repository as the themes there are free and also do not have sponsored links or Trojans. Remember, beautiful themes are not always free, they can ruin your website.

Last but not the least kudos to the WPMU folks for running such a research, it was an eye-opener indeed.

In recent times, the manner in which blogs present their content has undergone a very noticeable transformation. Gone are the days of “the flashier the better”. Right now, minimalistic is in! With that in mind, there has been a rise in popularity of magazine-style WordPress themes that score high on readability as well as aesthetics.

Although many of these WordPress magazine themes are not free, there are quite a few good ones that are! In this post, I’ve put together a list of some of the best free WordPress magazine themes available as of now:

The Morning After Theme

Source | Demo

WP Gold Theme

Source | Demo

Hybrid News Theme

Source | Demo

Magazine Basic v2.5 Theme

Source | Demo

Arthemia Theme (Free Version)

Source | Demo

Magasin Uno Theme

Source | Demo

Magasin Cuatro Theme

Source | Demo

Masipag Theme

Source | Demo

Matipid Theme

Source | Demo

Rebel Magazine Theme

Source | Demo

Mimbo Theme

Source | Demo

Hamasaki Theme

Source | Demo

Jello Wala Mello Theme

Source | Demo

Scarlett Theme

Source | Demo

Androida Theme

Source | Demo

Have any more to add to this list? Email me!

Do you have a blog? Want to create a custom WordPress theme from scratch? Check out Templatr- an easy way to create custom WordPress themes.

There are a lot of WordPress themes available in the official WordPress site. But if you have little coding and design knowledge, those themes are difficult to customize. We have seen beautiful photoblogging themes for WordPress before. Now let’s create a custom WordPress theme using Templatr.

How to Use Templatr to Create a Simple WordPress Theme

1. Just visit the homepage of Templatr.

2. Select a layout for the theme you want to create from the sidebar. There are a number of predefined templates to choose from including: double sidebars, multiple footers and headers. You can select a template and proceed to the next step.

2. Now you can upload any graphics or images that you want to use in the theme.

3. Once you are done uploading the files, you can start designing different elements in the theme. That means you can tweak the background colors, fonts, spacing, padding, alignment etc.

4. Once you are satisfied with all the customizations, you can download the theme. Just click the download button to download the theme you just created.

Techie-Buzz Verdict

In brief, Templatr is a nice option for people who have minimum design knowledge or coding skills. If you are a WordPress theme designer and want to create WordPress theme builds on the fly, Templatr is the way to go.

Techie-Buzz rating: 5/5 (perfect).

Christmas is nearly here! Well, almost anyway. For those of us [who are bloggers] who consider the arrival of winter as being synonymous with Christmas, here are a few themes to spice up that blog.

Merry Christmas 1:

A simple 2-columned WordPress Theme with a cheerful Christmas-themed header!

Merry Christmas 2:

A very well made WordPress theme with nifty features and a very pretty color combination. Download and tweak it to your heart’s content!

Any WordPress user will find that there is a vast array of themes to choose from. However, very often there is a need to customize pre-existing themes to one’s own requirements for the best possible presentation of information. It is here that WordPress Theme Frameworks come in very handy.

The best and most useful WordPress Theme Frameworks are those which allow users to customize their themes in an organized visually appealing manner where information is not only in an easy-to-read format, but is also arranged in a useful systematic manner. Thematic is one such WordPress Theme Framework. Thematic is open-source, free, search engine optimized and gives users, especially beginners, an upper hand when it comes to adapting themes based on their custom needs.

ThemeHybrid is another good place for WordPress Theme Frameworks. It offers free service to members and has great community support for all your WordPress theme needs.

The modus operandi of Carrington, another WordPress Theme Framework, according to the site itself, is the creation of custom templates. It is a minimalist CMS theme for WordPress that chooses classy elegance to over-the-top designs and is perfect for those who prefer a more subtle style to something overtly showy. All downloads from here are free and GNU GPL v2 licensed.

Now for those who would prefer a lighter CMS theme for WordPress, the Whiteboard theme, designed by Brian Purkiss would fit the bill perfectly seeing that it is only 76KB. And so, you get a fast-loading theme, something that is a definite plus point as it would reduce the number of people who might just get bored while a page loads and go off to another site!

WP Framework also provides a clean and basic WordPress Theme Framework that is highly extensible, can be easily modified directly and stays abreast of the latest WordPress updates.

After you choose and download the WordPress Theme Framework of your liking, you can let loose your creative ingenuity to blend content and design elements together in a manner that best suits your content.

Over the past few years we have had the same motto. That hasn’t changed. However, I must state once again that "change is constant" and we will always strive for constant improvement. That’s one reason why we try to make everything easier for our readers.

We do this by making changes to the website over and over again. This time around I decided to dirty my hands and do a redesign of the theme for better navigation and content presentation.

I am not a designer per se, but I do dabble a bit in it whenever it is worthwhile. I spent a few hours doing some thinking and designing to come up with a new theme for the site. It has hints of the original theme, but I have tried to keep the content more readable. You can take a look at it in the screenshot below or browse the newly created theme.

Although there are still things that might need tweaking and changing, I depend on your feedback to further improve the theme. Please feel free to browse it and let me know if you want to see any changes in it.

Your suggestions and feedback is highly appreciated and like always the comment form is open for you.

Do you have a photo blog on WordPress ? Here are some of the most popular and free photo blogging themes for WordPress that you can use and give your photo blog a new and attractive look.

Nishita

Nishita is a simple and minimalistic photo blogging theme for WordPress. If you have a Flickr account with lots of photos and want to create a photo blog using your Flickr photos then this theme will be a good choice. This theme is made by Brajeshwar.

Download Nishita WordPress theme Nishita Project page

Linquist

Linquist is a Free Photo blogging theme for WordPress with a dark background and a built in theme style switcher. Features Simple Lightbox effect for images and Gravatar Support. The unique thing about this theme is that text is displayed side by side with the images. So the visitor can read your article side by side. You can watch the demo here.

Download Linquist WordPress theme

Nautilus

Another simple theme for a photo blog, Nautilus is modified version of the famous K2 WordPress theme. It can be used to use images hosted on Flickr and to create a post just paste the image URL from the Flickr page. Maximum width allowed for an image is 740 pixels.

Download nautilus WordPress theme

Photoblog

A simple clean and easy to modify theme for WordPress. Doesn’t come with any sidebar or widgets and it’s a fixed width theme. Comes with a PSD of the logo as well. Check out the demo here.

Download Photoblog WordPress theme

Zack 990

Zack 990 is another photo blogging theme for WordPress blogs those uses large pictures and videos. Designed exclusively for photo and video bloggers, this theme is not meant for text based posts. Features a four column widget ready footer, you can check out the demo here.

Download Zack-990 WordPress Theme

Wp-Folio

Wp-folio emphasizes your images beautifully. The images in the single post pages can be 884 pixel wide and the theme is easy to maintain. You can customize colors and fonts without having to touch any code. Check out the live demo here.

Download Wp-Folio WordPress theme

Elegant grunge

Elegant grunge is a widget ready photo blog theme for WordPress that displays thumbnails from your latest posts. Comes with a very configurable sidebar where you can choose between no sidebar/one right sidebar or two right sidebars. You can also select a Custom image as a header. A 3 column widgetized footer is also added. More information about this theme can be found here.

Download Elegant grunge WordPress theme

F8

F8 is a premium WordPress theme which features your images beautifully in the homepage, just like a slideshow. But unlike other themes this theme is not Free. Check the live demo here.

Download F8 WordPress theme

Photopress

A perfect theme for photo blogs and one of my favorites. Simple light designs and no ugly sidebars. It’s a one column WordPress theme where you can display images as large as 640 pixels in width. Photopress was designed by Brian Gardner.Check out the live demo of photopress.

Download Photopress WordPress theme

Wp-photo

Wp Foto theme is single layout theme designed for photo blogger. It uses custom fields for displaying thumbnail in home page, archive page, category and tag page. Check the live demo of Wp-photo.

Download Wp-photo WordPress theme

Wp-pix

WP Pix is a cool photo blogging or portfolio theme for WordPress. You can choose between two different custom page templates: Blog and portfolio. The theme uses custom fields to display images on all pages. The unique thing about this theme is Accordion style sliders to show hidden content. A One column theme with no sidebars. Check out the live demo of Wp-pix.

Download Wp-pix wordpress theme

Going pro Gallery

Going pro gallery is a magazine style WordPress theme for photo blogs. This theme also uses custom fields to display thumbnails on the homepage. Clear navigation and large image width are some of the good features of this theme. Check the live demo of going pro gallery.

Download going pro gallery WordPress theme

Monochrome gallery

A free widgetized theme for WordPress with a unique gallery view of posts. Comes with a rich Ajax slideshow, author archives page, categorized posts with thumbnails on the homepage and a CSS framework to aid in customization. Requires sign up to download

Download Monochrome gallery wordpress theme

Modularity

Another great theme from the folks at Graphpaperpress. Modularity is a multimedia theme framework for WordPress. Images and video are kept in the front and center and every aspect of the theme can be customized from the theme options page (e.g define background, text, link colors, contact info, site tracking code etc).

The unique thing about this theme is automatic thumbnail generation. No need to manage thumbnails using custom fields. A Built in full-screen HD video player is also included right at the top and the theme looks beautiful if you have a wallpaper or a photo gallery blog.

Download modularity WordPress theme

Autofocus

If you are a photographer and want to showcase your work in a blog then use this theme. The images are neatly arranged like a calendar view on the homepage and when a user hovers over an image a short excerpt is shown. The single post pages are extra wide so that you can use large images. Comes with large fonts which looks attractive and pleasing. Check out the live demo of Autofocus.

Download Autofocus WordPress theme Theme project page

Ocular Professor

Another beautiful theme with an attractive footer and a broad content section. Features: threaded comments, special styling for widgets and a featured posts section on the homepage. Check the live demo of this theme.

Download ocular professor wordpress theme Theme project page

Monotone

Monotone is a clean and dynamic theme for WordPress. It takes the first image attached with each post and samples colors from it for use in the surrounding layout. Each of your post must contain an image. The theme pulls colors out of your images and uses them in the design. Check the live demo of monotone.

Download monotone WordPress theme

Which of the above themes you liked the most ? Share it with us in the comments or if you have a photo blog leave a link so that we can see your  theme and design.

In the past we have seen several popular websites or services being cloned and converted into WordPress themes, some of which include the Gmail WordPress theme, Google search WordPress theme and a Google chrome WordPress theme.

So how can social networking be left far behind, there are really close clones of popular social networking like Digg, Facebook and Twitter made for WordPress.

Digg WordPress Theme

Digg-Like is a perfect clone of Digg, if anyone from Digg lands on your blog, they will definitely be looking for the Digg button to vote :-)

Download/Demo Digg-Like WordPress Theme

Twitter WordPress Theme

Fresh Tweet is a theme that has very close resemblance to twitter, if you are a twitter fan and want to show it off on your blog, here is a theme for you.

P2 is another theme that closely resembles twitter. P2 also has a lot of features that allow for group blogging.

Download/Demo Fresh Tweet Theme | Download/Demo P2 Tweet Theme

Facebook WordPress Theme

Facebook lovers have quite a lot of options to integrate the look and feel into their WordPress blogs in the form of Facebook Layouts and Facebook Lover.

Download/Demo Facebook Layouts | Download/Demo Facebook Lover

Which social networking are you a fan of? Will you use the themes on your blog? It would be interesting to know that.

Do you know of any other themes that are clones of social networking sites? Do feel free to share them with us.

If you are a Gmail lover and have a WordPress blog there is a real cool way of showing your love for both these platforms with a new theme for WordPress that closely resembles Gmail’s look and feel.

Confused? We were too, that’s how closely this resembles the actual Gmail interface.

Google Gmail is a unique style of WordPress. It aims to provide similar looks to actual Gmail in WordPress.

It has collapsible widgets, admin links on front page for easiest access to edit posts and more. Comments are displayed in unique way as well, you can expand or collapse any comment with nifty AJAX effect.

If you are looking for other interesting themes related to Google products, do checkout Google Chrome WordPress theme and Google Search WordPress theme.

Preview Google Gmail WordPress Theme | Download Google Gmail WordPress Theme

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It has been a long time since we have featured any new WordPress plugins  or themes here, however we just came across a theme, we could not resist from talking about Woogle, a theme that is entirely based upon the design of Google Search.

Also See: Google Chrome WordPress Theme

At first glance we were confused as to if we were actually seeing Google Search results, rather than WordPress blog posts, this theme definitely has a very good potential for placing Google ads, as they can blend just like regular search results.

Woogle Features

• Two column fluid width
• Threaded & paged comments ready for WP 2.7
• Widgets ready
• Gravatar ready
• Works on WordPress v2.5 and above
• Tested on IE6/7, Firefox, Chrome
• XHTML & CSS Validated

Download Woogle | Woogle WordPress Theme Demo